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I need to start using my Wii Fit again

April 3, 2009 by Tricia

Do you remember back in January how excited I was when I bought a Wii Fit on eBay?

Once it, and the console that I purchased after the fact since I didn’t know I needed that too finally arrived I used the Wii Fit and played games like Wii Sport bowling and tennis for about two weeks. Unfortunately, at the end of that two week period my Crohn’s got worse and so did my back so I didn’t feel up to using the Wii Fit.

Can you believe that I haven’t used it since then? Even though I’ve purchased four more games to use in the meantime?

Sad isn’t it?

My Crohn’s is still flaring, but overall I feel a little better this week. Oh and my back, probably thanks to the lower back stretching exercises I’ve been doing for the last two to three weeks seems to be getting a lot better. So I think I’m ready to start working out with my Wii Fit again.

I have been getting physical activity in other ways though. I’ve been trying to get out more often to take the dog for long walks. Plus I’ve done about 10 hours of work in the garden this week! Hmmm maybe I should be logging some of this activity into my Wii Fit? There is a way to do that – I just have to remember how, and I think you have to do it on the day you do the none Wii activities as you can’t go backwards in the calendar if you forget.

I’ve also put several hours of work into clearing out the basement so that there will be room for the workmen to work when they replace our oil tank in a week! Sometimes I think it would be easier dealing with our cluttered basement if we just got a truck rental and carted all the stuff we’ve been storing down there to some storage facility … even if it’s only temporary. That won’t work though – I’ve got to go through the stuff and probably throw out half of the stuff we don’t use and probably won’t use.

So back to the Wii Fit … for those of you with a Wii Fit – do you use it regularly? Or did you use it a lot at first and then start to slack off?

I slacked off due to health problems, but I know that if I start to use it regularly I might feel a bit better – or at least my back might as my stomach muscles get stronger again.

Yard work and a bad back do not mix

March 28, 2009 by Tricia

Chris and I took advantage of the beautiful day here in Toronto and went outside for several hours to tidy up the garden.

My mind was into the work, but my body wasn’t! I’m certainly not made of Ferrari parts – not anymore anyway! LOL Nope! I just found out I have a slipped disk in my back which explains the back pain I’ve been having for over a year now. Naturally, twisting, bending and standing and sitting in odd positions while cleaning out the garden beds did absolutely nothing for my back except cause more pain!

So now I’m lying on the couch watching TV with a heating pad on my back. Oh yes, I’m also full of Advil and Tylenol. None of it seems to be helping at the moment … maybe a good rest will relax my back … maybe!

The backyard does look beautiful now though! All the dead leaves, dead foliage and most of the dead branches on the rose bushes are gone. I didn’t “technically” prune the roses – just cut off the obviously dead branches. It’s still too early to do a real pruning …. or is it?

I mean .. I was totally surprised at how many plants were coming up when we uncovered them! Not just the usually suspects like crocus, daffodils, tulips and hyacinth no … my Hollyhocks, Phlox, honeysuckle vines, and many of my clematis have leaf buds on them. I swear my garden is at least two weeks ahead of it’s self if not a full month ahead!

Now that the back garden is all cleaned up and the sun can get at the tender shoots poking their heads out of the ground I’m sure that everything will really start to shoot up! In just few days (if the weather holds) I’m sure there will be a lot more green in my garden!

The grass is already starting to green up too. On Monday evening we raked the front and back yards as well as started cleaning up the garden beds and the grass was dead looking – not a hint of green. But just 6 days of above freezing temps and a tiny bit of rain later and it now has quite a bit of green.

Now if only my back could make such a quick turn around as our awakening garden is!

Oh BTW did you participate in Earth Hour? We had a candle light dinner after expending all that energy outdoors! What did you do during earth hour?

My husbands 150 dollar mistake

March 26, 2009 by Tricia

Why do guys tinker with things that don’t really need fixing? Why???

Last weekend Chris was in the basement cleaning up our tool area when he found our old Brita “on tap” water filter. The one that we had on our kitchen faucet had been leaking a little bit so Chris came up with the great idea that he’d just put the old Brita filter back on. (of course I think we replaced the old filter because it was leaking …)

I think that Chris thought something was screwed into the end of the faucet so after removing the first Brita filter and trying to replace it with the old one (which didn’t work) he started prying away at the end of the faucet. I think he was doing that so that we could put the end cap back on the end of the tap – if he could find it in the basement where I’m sure he put it when he took it off so that the Brita Filter could be added to the tap.

The next thing I knew I heard swearing. Chris had somehow broken off a piece of the end of the faucet!

Chris’ tinkering of course meant that we needed to replace the whole kitchen facet! Why? Well when we turned on the water it pretty much sprayed all over since the end of the tap was broken. I guess it’s good that we aren’t totally broke, but it was an expense that we certainly didn’t need!

It was about 7 pm when we decided we needed a new tap so we rushed off to Home Depot. We had to go fast because it was closing at 8 pm! Once there we picked out a Moen facet – chrome to match our double sinks. It was something like $126 for the faucet, plus we bought some plumbers tape and putty to prevent leaks – all in all with tax it came to just under $150!

It’s one of those that have a long arching tap and a single levered handle to control the stream of water and temperature of water. Similar to our old one, but much nicer. The old facet was a very cheap set that the previous home owners must have put in when they “cheaply” redid the kitchen before selling.

I like faucets with a lever handle. Maybe it’s the nurse in me liking to keep things from getting contaminated, but if your hands are dirty you can just use your wrist or the side of your hand to flip the water on – that way the handle doesn’t get contaminated with whatever is on your hands that needs to be washed off.

The next day when Chris went into the basement to continue cleaning up the tool area and to try to clear out some of the clutter in the basement (we’re having our oil tank replaced in April so the basement needs to have some space to move around) I told him to stick to his work and not find things to fix or that would distract him from the job he was supposed to be doing! God know we don’t need any more expensive mistakes!

Guys! Geesh!

One of the things I hate about Spring

March 26, 2009 by Tricia

One of the things that I hate about Spring is all the garbage that suddenly appears on our lawn, sidewalk and blows around on the street once the snow melts.

Toronto overall is a very clean city, but there are still people who toss tissues or other garbage on the ground once they are done with them. There’s certainly enough public garbage and recycling bins in the city that no one walking down a city street would have to walk very far before they’d find one to dispose of their garbage … but some are too lazy to do that. I mean there’s three garbage and recycling bins each within a two to three minute walk from my house alone, yet my lawn has junk on it.

So now .. with the rain and wind blowing, every time I go outside I discover used tissues stuck in my bare rose bushes, crumpled fast food wrappers, paper cups, newspapers, flyers, plastic bags, cigarette buts and other garbage that I have to clean up.

This year seems worse than others. Either the city hasn’t been cleaning the streets as much as they used to or people are getting lazier about properly getting rid of their trash.

Even in the winter when there was snow on the ground I found garbage in the snow bank that wouldn’t normally be there like plastic pieces of broken car tail lights and something that I think was some kind of industrial knobs. Strange stuff … maybe some of it fell off a truck or something.

Like I said earlier Toronto is a very clean city compared to many large cities. So I really don’t have much to complain about … but still, there just seems to be more leftover winter garbage around this year than there usually is.

Do you hate cleaning other peoples garbage off your property once Spring arrives and the snow melts to reveal all the extra junk you have to pick up?

Headachey, sick and having some mighty strange dreams!

March 20, 2009 by Tricia

I’ve been feeling just awful all week. Rather than my normal Crohn’s aches and complaints I think I might be fighting something else this time around.

I’ve had a headache since either Monday evening or sometime early Tuesday morning, fevers (normally have lots thanks to the Crohns) and I’m feeling nauseated. If I am fighting something I hope I get over it soon! This is a drag!

Another thought occurred to me. My dog who I haven’t had spade yet (been meaning to all year but we keep having health and or financial emergencies) just went into heat for the second time. Maybe her hormones are messing with mine and that’s why I’m having a headachey week? Hey … anything’s possible.

Maybe you’ve experienced this as well … you know when you are getting sick? Sometimes your dreams change. Either your don’t seem to dream at all (noticed by those who seem to dream all the time otherwise) or your dreams suddenly get even stranger than normal? Mine have gotten stranger!

The other night I dreamed that I was standing up near the couch and placing crackers with peanut butter on them on the COUCH (???) when I felt someone staring at me. I went over to the loveseat by the window and I could see the body of a man leaning against the window and looking down at me. Then I glanced at the door and the lock was damaged and two people ran into the house. I woke up after that terrified with my heart racing! Scary and strange dream, eh? Maybe our mouse or whatever wild animal it is that we have in our wall influenced that dream?

Then last night my dreams had TV commercials in them! Hmmm you know you’re watching too much TV when your dreams start to have commercials. LOL One was a life insurance commercial that drives me nuts whenever it comes on because it’s three times as loud as the other commercials and the TV show that I’m watching and another was about motorcycle accident lawyers Los Angeles. That was weird, I live in Toronto, why would I dream of LA lawyers or motorcycle accidents other than the fact that I’ve always been a little nervous around motorcycles. Odd.

Do you have strange dreams when you have a cold, the flu or some other bug? I always seem to have ones that are much stranger than normal and that’s saying something since most of my dreams seem to be more than a little out there to begin with. LOL

I need to start using my Wii Fit again

Yard work and a bad back do not mix

My husbands 150 dollar mistake

One of the things I hate about Spring

Headachey, sick and having some mighty strange dreams!

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